How we got Nivio to Davos (WEF)…and won

Alot of emails later, with the same question being asked again and again, I have decided to write a blog post, making my life easier and hopefully yours.

In short you need to partner with a PR company who have done it before (we used Chameleon in the UK). Once this is done you have yourself a team, which is crucial with any type of assault. So what next:

Step 1: Build a Calendar for next year, write down all the events which are global/local/ and hard code the events which are relevant to you.

Step 2: Fine tune this target audience in terms of reach, i.e WEF will be covered globally, whereas an awards ceremony in Delhi, will be local

Step 3: Once you have your targets in place, you need to know the sweet spot for each target. You need to understand what “angle” they are coming from, i.e is everyone talking about “green” or “CO2”, or is it about something else like “broadband speeds”, its like selling, you need to know what the requirements of the buyer are. BUT please note do not lie, this will come out, and you will look really really dumb, its better not to target that event. For example if your product/service is about cars, and you went to a ceremony which was all about mobile phones, I am sure a few creative people could build a link between the two, but is it worth it, I think not.

Step 4: So now you have your target, and their sweet spot, you need to start to put together a piece of paper which hits this sweet spot, what makes your “key” fit into that “lock”, why are you the perfect fit, put together a “cheat sheet” of all the points that fit

Step 5: Okay that’s what you can provide, BUT we need support from outside the circle, we need third party support, we need other people, other reports which enhance your claim, do other people agree, that what you are doing will help?

Step 6: Writing your story – this is the hard part, since they all have a word count, the best thing is to write the full story and IGNORE the word count, and then start to strip bits out, eventually you will have a really tight story, get someone to read it again and again….and then again.

Step 7: Once all this is done, assume that you will get nominated, and no this is not arrogance, but you need a plan of what to do if you do get nominated, since getting nominated can carry just as much PR as winning, so milk it. Have a plan of action to push out the nomination story to a wide audience, push it out to friends and family, make sure everyone reads it.

Step 8: Pray, yes folks there is nothing else you can do, there is no hidden formula, no bribing of judges, all you can do is make sure is that you do your best to beat the competition, the rest is down to the panel, but if your “key” fits the “lock” better than others, and you have supporting evidence you will get there…and if you don’t at least you tried

Aside from the 8 steps above, you need to ensure that this task is not given to a office junior, the company from the top needs to be involved in this, it will take time, and its needs effort, but its worth it…..Oh all of the above does not apply, if your product/service sucks

Will Davos make you famous? possibly not, will it makes thousands use your product? doubt it, the only thing that will achieve those two is a great product/service that people want, PR of course will make the journey smoother and quicker.

And that my friends is “how the west was won” 🙂

Iqbal Gandham